Pop star Rihanna on Tuesday (Sept 16) blasted a television network for wavering on whether to broadcast one of her songs at an American football game, amid a furore over domestic violence.

CBS had planned to play Jay-Z's Run This Town, featuring Rihanna, on its Thursday Night Football programme pitting the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Baltimore Ravens – whose star Ray Rice has been banned from the league over knocking out his then fiancee.

As Rihanna was the victim herself of a highly publicised 2009 assault by singer and then-boyfriend Chris Brown, CBS dropped her song from the broadcast – but later backtracked.

"Y'all are sad for penalizing me for this," she tweeted. "The audacity."

CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus, speaking last week to Sports Illustrated, said the network had made changes amid criticism that the professional sports world was slow to punish the Raven’s Rice, who was filmed at a casino knocking out the woman who is now his wife.